Nick Saban told listeners to his radio show Thursday that his appearance in the movie The Blind Side almost didn’t happen, and that what he did wasn’t acting.

A caller to the show asked Saban which was harder – coaching at Alabama or acting in The Blind Side. Saban eventually got to his answer, but first, he had to explain what it was like to be in the movie.

Alabama coach Nick Saban said that his part in the movie The Blind Side wasn’t really an acting job.

“I did no acting in The Blind Side,” Saban said. “It was not considered acting. They gave me a script, the director gave me a script. I didn’t want to be in the movie because I was the coach here (Alabama), and I was the coach at LSU in the movie so I thought the fans here would all get mad at me if I was the LSU coach in a movie.

“So I refused and Fred Smith, who was a pretty powerful guy with FedEx and all that, produced the movie and talked me into doing it. I told him I’d do it, but I’m not going to wear LSU clothes. He said OK. Then the director comes in and gives me a script and says ‘OK, here’s your lines. Here’s what we want you to say.’ I said, ‘Hey buddy, I was there. I did this.’ I said ‘Why can’t I just do what I did? I’ll just say what I said when I come to the front door, I’ll say what I said when I sat down and talked to the player, Michael, and the little boy that was there. I’ll just say it, and if you don’t like it, I’ll do your script.’ So, I did it that way and he liked it so I never did the script.

“In my opinion, there was no acting at all. To me if you act, they give you a script and you act like somebody else. All I did was just be myself and did exactly what I did. Coaching the team’s harder, I guess is what I’m trying to say.”

Saban was one of six coaches who were in the movie. Phillip Fulmer from Tennessee, Ed Orgeron, then at Ole Miss, Tommy Tuberville from Auburn, Houston Nutt from Arkansas and Lou Holtz from South Carolina all played themselves.